The Federal Government has received more than 2,500 tips from whistle-blowers, according to the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun. Adeosun made the disclosure during a town hall meeting in Abuja on Tuesday where other ministers took turns to highlight the achievements of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration so far.
The Minister stated that contrary to reports in some quarters, not all the whistle-blowers want rewards for exposing corruption, stressing that some volunteered information as a patriotic act geared toward national growth and development.
She also revealed that apart from recovery of loot, the government was blocking various financial leakages to make the anti-graft war holistic. The Minister concluded that while some top government officials were disparaging government commitment in this regard, the effort was yielding positive results.
Adeosun said “On the other measures we are using to fight corruption, apart from the Treasury Single Account (TSA), you all know about the whistle-blower policy, which has helped to make every Nigerian a detective. As we know, the policy says if you know something, say something and patriotic Nigerians are now saying a lot of things.
“We have over 2,500 tips from various quarters. They are not just the big monies that we see in the papers, but the other monies, like someone diverting the money of a University. We go in there and we stop it. I think the fight against corruption is the people’s fight.
“Note that not all the whistle-blowers are looking for rewards. Some are just patriotic citizens. Now that everyone has embraced the policy, this has become a national fight against corruption.
“On the issue of ghost workers, we are removing dead people from the payroll every week. We are blocking loopholes such that people taking the salaries of 10 or 20 people can no longer do that. We have also been able to create more employment by flushing out the ghost workers.”
The Federal Government whistle-blower policy has led to the recovery of huge sums of money across the country.
